Early evening, still light, quiet tree-lined streets in Old Town Ballard hold a still promise of the dinner hour. Lights from the restaurants, pubs, and wine cafes glow over wooden tables set artfully on old wooden floors, windows gleam with un-looked for bits and pieces of the past, and reflect trees, leaves, branches, telephone poles, passing couples strolling toward their favorite Old Town cafe. It’s about friends, conversation, a timeless walk letting the soft evening light and the greenery and old brick and wood surfaces sink in below the level of daily life to the place we keep those special moments.

The Seattle folks living in Ballard think of themselves more as Ballardites than Seattleites. It is an urban village with so much character and charm and arguably some of the best restaurants, drinking places, and shops in the city, that people rarely need to go anywhere else to eat, go to the movies, shop, ride their bikes, or go out for live music and socializing. Even the Tuesday after Memorial Day a rusty girl’s voice drifts out over a guitar rift from an open door, couples sit over starkly elegant drinks at Bitterroot, and the Noble Fir is as usual absolutely packed with couples at tables with white clothes.

What could one possible want that is not here? There is even a new hotel (Hotel Ballard) on Ballard Ave, giving the Ballard Inn (always my favorite with the air of docks and yesteryear) some competition and worth staying at no matter where in the city your destination lies.

The Ballard Inn lists some of the best things to do, and I strongly recommend you allow plenty of time to enjoy yourself in this, perhaps the best Seattle destination to unwind and live timelessly, for however long you are here. (For information on Ballard real estate and homes and condos for sale in Ballard please click here to go to my blog on the current Ballard market, or for an in-depth look at a superb Gelato spot on Ballard Ave, check out my blog on D’Ambrosio Gelato.)